Winston Cook-Wilson December 8, 2017 3:32 pm, SPIN Magazine

Sunny Murray, a pioneering free jazz drummer and bandleader of the free jazz movement, has reportedly passed away at the age of 82. Ayler Records, a Swedish labels with which Murray collaborated on some of his later recordings, confirmed the news today, as well as the French paper Libération. A representative from Eremite Records, another label on which Murray recorded, also confirmed the news to Spin.

Murray played and recorded with many giants of the avant-jazz genre, most regularly Cecil Taylor, who got Murray his start on the New York experimental jazz scene after moving to the city from his hometown of Philadelphia, and Albert Ayler, with whom Murray played on many of the saxophonist’s defining and more acerbic LPs. Murray also collaborated with John Coltrane, Art Blakey, Sonny Rollins, Max Roach, Gil Evans, trumpeter Don Cherry and saxophonist Archie Shepp.

In the late ’60s, Murray began to record as a bandleader on various labels, bolstering his reputation as one of his scene’s most inventive and explosive drummers, flouting the conventions of time and form that had defined the genre prior to the 1960s. Murray later moved to Paris, which is where he lived up until the end of his life. In 2008, a French documentary about Murray’s life, Sunny’s Time Now, was released.

By Giovanni Russonello, New York Times

Dec. 14, 2017

Sunny Murray, an influential drummer who was among the first to define a personal style in the free-jazz idiom, died on Dec. 7 in Paris. He was 81.

His half brother, Conny Murray, said the cause was multiple organ failure.

Mr. Murray was still finding his footing on New York’s jazz scene in 1960 when he met the pianist Cecil Taylor, a rising star of the avant-garde. The two played together at a jam session, and they clicked.

“I don’t know what I did, but he looked over his shoulder and said, ‘Do that again. You’ve got the will, so the spirits will do it.’ I’ll never forget that,” Mr. Murray told the writer A. B. Spellman for his 1966 book “Four Lives in the Bebop Business.”

Mr. Murray and Mr. Taylor soon forged a partnership that, though short-lived, was a watershed in jazz history. They made only a few recordings together, but “Nefertiti, the Beautiful One Has Come” — a double LP captured during a trio performance in Copenhagen in 1962 — would become a seminal document.

Director: Antoine PRUM | Producer: Paul THILTGES

Genre: Documentary | Produced In: 2008 | Story Teller's Country: Luxembourg Tags: Culture, Europe, Global, Luxembourg, Relationships

Synopsis: Antoine Prum's feature documentary "SUNNY'S TIME NOW" is a vibrant homage to an uncompromising artist, American avant-garde jazz drummer Sunny Murray, arguably one of the most influential figures of the historic free jazz scene. Featuring a series of interviews with key time witnesses and extensive concert footage, the film reassesses the complex relationships between the libertarian music movement and the political climate of an era, of which revolutionary echoes still resonate today.

Click below to view the documentary 'Sunny's Time Now.'

http://www.cultureunplugged.com/documentary/watch-online/play/8970/SUNNY-S-TIME-NOW